Information technology (“IT”) environments can consist of many different systems performing processes, such as business processes, on common data. The different systems can be part of the same entity or can be part of different entities, such as vendors or contractors. The data used for the processes can be stored in a number of different locations, systems, and/or formats. Different plants and branch offices of a company can work largely independently from each other and can store data in different formats; adopted companies can introduce new software solutions to a group of affiliated companies that require that data be stored in different formats; and systems from different vendors can be linked, but each vendor may specify that data be stored in different formats. Different data models can make it difficult to integrate business processes in these scenarios.
Thus, the format in which data are entered into an IT environment depends strongly on the underlying data model used for storing the data in a particular location. For example, measurement data may be stored in English units at one plant but in metric units in another plant, or sales data may be stored in terms of revenue per month for one regional sales department, but in terms of revenue per week in another regional sales department. Because the format in which data are entered depends on the underlying data storage model, the user must recognize the underlying data model of the particular data storage system and must conform the format in which data are entered to the underlying data model. Furthermore, the user must ensure when data are entered into the system the data meet certain consistency checks that are imposed by the underlying data model. The data are not accepted until the consistency checks are satisfied.